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GDP Song of the Day-ish – The White Elephant – Airplane

Gross Domestic Product is just around the corner, April 14 to be exact, and I thought to help promote it a little, I would feature a song from one of the bands each day-ish. I probably won’t do it everyday, thus the -ish. For more info on GDP visit the Facebook Event Page or Des Moines Music Coalition’s website

This was one of two acts that I wasn’t even slightly familiar with coming in to this year’s GDP. I will get to the other very soon, I’m sure (spoiler alert: It’s The Beatnicks). With as much focus as I have on Iowa music, you’d think there wouldn’t be a single band that I don’t at least have a passing knowledge, let alone two that are featured at arguably Iowa’s biggest showcase for local talent. I think that just speaks to how much is actually going on in our state.

Every year, Joe Lawler writes a music award column for Des Moines Register’s Juice. Its is fun and local artists get some exposure (both musically and the artist who creates the awards). Well anyway, this year they released a reader’s choice category and the voting is here . On that list, there are a ton of acts that I’ve never heard of. I am a guy who spends a large amount of time studying Iowa music, and I still only knew maybe half.

I think it is a testament to this town, this state even as to just how much talent we have. And with the amount of acts sharing members, that list shows just how hard working this scene is. It is a full time job at this point for me to just kind of keep up, so just the vastness of our area is a little Carl Sagan level mind-numbing.

As for The White Elephant, I liked it. I thought it had a hard rock sound with a southern rock vibe. On Facebook they call themselves “swamprock”, and that seems very spot on. The sound is dirty and garage, but the vocals are crisp and bright. It reminds me of a swap in fact. Lots of beauty hidden among the grime and muck.

And now I realized that I spent nearly no time talking about the music. I promise I will do The White Elephant again. For now, go listen to their EP here.